BCP Command Line Utility Installation Process
SQL Server 2012 BCP command line utility installationRecently, I needed to install the BCP utility on our job automation servers. These servers do not need the full suite of SQL Server Workstation...
View ArticleThe Distribution Agent for a Transactional Publication Will Ignore the...
The company I work for hosts a SaaS solution for multiple customers, and we utilize transactional replication to push a copy of the customer's data from our SQL servers to a SQL server on-site at the...
View ArticleSQL Server Service crash after Service Pack Install
A tough lesson regarding why you should always keep the configured default Data and Log paths updated in SQL Server.At my company, our virtual infrastructure is growing and changing rapidly. As a...
View ArticleMy PASS Summit 2012 Experience - Day 1 Keynote (LiveBlog)
Bill Graziano opened the day with a PASS status update and Summit overview. Connect, Share, and Learn is still the mantra of PASS. Community is of critical importance. No one can know everything, but...
View ArticleMy PASS Summit 2012 Experience - Day 2 Keynote (LiveBlog)
Thursday is Women In Technology day at the PASS Summit. This year I was able to wear a kilt to show support for the fairer gender. The keynote started off with an overall PASS status update. Emphasis...
View ArticleHow to Downgrade SQL Server Editions
I recently ran into an issue where the production VM template (containing Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2008 R2) was used to deploy new SQL Server VMs for Engineering development (and thus should be...
View ArticleMy Very First Guest Post
I met someone at the PASS Summit this year who really pushed past her fears to meet a lot of people and make an impact. Andrea Allred. As a tribute to her bravery, I have submitted a guest post over...
View ArticleThe Road To Hong Kong - or rather MCSE: SQL Server 2012 Data Platform
While I was at the PASS Summit 2012 (THE best SQL Server conference on the planet) in November, I decided I needed to start working on updating my Microsoft SQL Server certifications. The task seemed...
View ArticleMaintaining SQL Replication Publications -or- How To Add An Article To A...
For quite some time, I was stumped as to how to properly script adding an article to an existing publication. It's a somewhat straightforward process using the sp_addarticle command, but for some...
View ArticleSQL Replication - Monitoring Tips When Delivering Snapshots for Transactional...
Monitoring the delivery of a snapshot for Transactional Replication can be a bit tedious, especially if it is a large publication or you are delivering large tables. However, the more you know about...
View ArticleDatabase Migrations Made Easy (Or At Least Easier)
I do quite a few database migrations where I work. How many, you ask? Just this year I've performed around 18 customer database migrations (and I set up almost half that number of new SQL Servers to...
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SQL Server 2008 R2 - Gandalf Edition - How To Address A Locked sa Account...
I had a conversation with a client the other day that went something like this:Client> Hey Matt, we can't currently use {name of software package} because it says that the sa account on {insert DB...
View ArticleReplication Monitor Not Able to Display Publications - I Love The Smell of...
Recently, I was working on load-balancing multiple replication Publications across two Distributors. I had dropped the Publications and Subscriptions on one Publisher that was being migrated, and then...
View ArticleRed Gate Releases SQL Monitor v4 - One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap for...
When I attended Red Gate's SQL In The City in Charlotte, I spent a great deal of time chatting with the SQL Monitor project manager, Daniel Röthig. He let me in on a little secret about SQL Monitor v4...
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HELP - My Distribution Database Is HUGE, But I Don't Have A Lot Of Commands...
I recently ran across an issue where the Distribution database on the Distributor was almost 150 GB, but when I looked at the Publications in Replication Monitor, I found that there were less than...
View ArticleWhy Are My Database Restores So Slow? - How To Take Advantage Of Instant File...
I like to keep a close eye on things and one of my favorite scripts queries the sys.dm_exec_requests Dynamic Management View. This query reports the status of backups, restores and DBCC commands (like...
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SQL 2012 Installation Error - Error while enabling Windows feature NexFx3
While installing SQL Server 2012 on a server running Windows Server 2012, I occasionally run into an issue where the installer couldn't properly enable the .NET 3.5 role. I was able to make it...
View ArticleWhat On Earth Is Consuming My Transaction Log - I've Got That Bloating Feeling
One more than one occasion, I've gotten the call that the log drive on one of my database servers has suddenly filled to capacity. Some things may continue to work, but the situation gets worse and as...
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Red Gate SQL In The City Seattle 2014 - Training The Red Gate Way
I've attended Red Gate's SQL In The City Seattle 2012 and SQL In The City Charlotte 2013. This year, I not only had the privilege of attending SQL In The City in Seattle event, but I was thrilled to...
View ArticleSQL Server Clustered Instance Error 422 - Ambiguous Error With A (Hopefully)...
Recently I observed an issue with bringing up SQL Services in a clustered environment. In this particular Windows Failover Cluster, there are two instances of SQL Server that typically run on the same...
View ArticleInterview With A DBA - Why Do You Do What You Do?
I recently had a student conducting a career study/project contact me with questions about my career and the choices I made to get where I am. I'm certainly not perfect by any stretch of the...
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Clustered Instance Patch Failure - The Cluster Group Cannot Be Determined
I recently ran into an issue where I was unable to apply a cumulative update to one node of a Failover Clustered Instance (FCI) of SQL Server 2014. The Summary log from the CU install had the...
View ArticleTrace, Trace, Trace - Too Many And SQL Can't Keep Up The Pace!
I recently ran into an issue on a client development (thankfully not production) server where the server was performing very poorly. We didn't see anything obvious in any of the monitoring detail we...
View ArticleI've Got The SP2 Replication Blues - SP2 For SQL 2014 Changes A System SPROC
I ran into this replication error the other day and I was completely stumped.Procedure or function sp_MSreplraiserror has too many arguments specified. We started getting that error message shortly...
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The Table Is In Replication - Why Does SQL Server Replication Seem To Ignore It?
There are occasions when Updates, Inserts, and Deletes on a replicated table do not replicate out to the Subscriber. You've verified that the table is listed in the Articles included in the...
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